In-line heater

This is a discussion on In-line heater within the Freshwater Aquarium Equipment forums, part of the Beginner Freshwater Aquarium category; -->
I plan to use a heater (hydor I think is the brand -- used) connected to my canister filter. Does it matter which line ...

I plan to use a heater (hydor I think is the brand -- used) connected to my canister filter. Does it matter which line I connect it to (I know to be aware of which way water flows, but I'm wondering when to heat the water -- that is, do I heat the water as it leaves the filter or as it enters the filter -- or does it really not matter? Also, should I still use an in-tank heater in addition for a 90 gallon tank? (Not used to a tank this big)

i have 3 of the heaters that your looking at, and yes its Hydor..........2 are on 55's and the other one is on a 90........I love the heaters, for the fact they never give a fluctuation in temp.........set it where you want it and it holds its temp.....on the 90 it is a little undersized, if you want to raise the temp above 80 degrees....... mine is set at 77, just to give me some flexability if i would need to raise it for an Ich outbreak......The instructions that came with the heater, say you should put the heater on the outtake line of the filter, they did state a reason, but i cannot recall it at this time........Hope this helped you out!

Put it on the return side from the filter to the tank. You do this so that the filter will clean the gunk out of the water before it gets to the heater. You can easily clean the filter. The heater not so much.

equip it on the return line, also its reccomended that you have more than one heater so that if your main goes down your fish wont die. heaters are the number one most important piece of equipment in your tank not to mention if you had two they wouldnt have to work as hard to heat your tank.

MoneyMitch...if you have two, most likely one won't ever turn on. The thermostats work by a threshold...if the temperature goes below the lower threshold/temperature, then the heater element is turned on. When the temperature goes above the threshold, the element turns off. So, the heater with the lowest threshold should wins and turns on before the other gets a chance. Although, you could get lucky and have very close thresholds...then they would both turn on for half the time. If they use an electronic temperature sensor, this is a lot more likely compared to a mechanical, expanding metal, type.

I would say your filter is your most important piece of equipment. However his suggestion of two isn't a bad one. The key is not to get two full sized heaters but two partial ones. For instance if you figure you need 400W of heating for your tank don't get two 400W heaters, get a pair of 200 or 250W heaters. Yes, one will spend more time on than the other but because they are not full sized they will share the load to a degree. The big benefit is that if one takes a dive and either turns on all the time or shuts down completely the other can compensate either by not turning on at all or by staying on. It's not perfect as you won't have a stable temperature but it will be better than if a single full sized heater malfunctioned.